After a decade of false starts, the latest Jurassic Park entry came roaring into theaters this year. Jurassic World (2015) replaces the original's mix of awe and terror with slam-bang dinosaur action. Despite clunky scripting, it works as popcorn entertainment.Two decades after the original Jurassic Park, InGen has recreated Jurassic World on Isla Nublar, an operational dinosaur theme park. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an executive who's stuck babysitting her nephews (Nick Robinson and Ty Sympkins) while negotiating corporate. Tough guy Owen (Chris Pratt) trains the park's Velociraptors while flirting (badly) with Claire. InGen geneticist Dr. Wu (B.D. Wong) has created a new hybrid dinosaur, the Indomitus Rex, which matches a T-Rex's strength with raptor intelligence. When the Indomitus escapes, InGen bigwig Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) decides it's time to test his theory of weaponized dinosaurs.
Much of Jurassic World plays as meta commentary on the franchise. Characters bemoan that dinosaurs themselves no longer wow guests, so time to create a hybrid monster. The Indomitus Rex has some cool traits (camouflage and interspecies communication) but a dino serial killer is rather over-the-top. Fortunately, the filmmakers are self-aware enough to recognize that audiences love real dinosaurs: hence T-Rex and raptor team up to take down the mutant. For anyone who considered Part III's Rex-eating Spinosaurus an insult, Jurassic World sets things right.
Director Colin Trevorrow exponentially ups the body count, with dozens of human (and dino) casualties. The I. Rex kills dozens of extras, the raptors briefly go rogue and there's a prolonged set piece with pterodactyls flying amok. With so much action the human interactions feel strained: Owen and Claire trade some funny banter, but the kids' bonding is warmed-over Spielberg and the villains scenery-chewing ciphers. Fortunately, there's enough enjoyment and variety to the dino attacks that they aren't repetitive. No dino-loving kid will miss I-Rex and T-Rex duking it out, or the aquatic Mosasaurus snatching Pteradons midflight.
Chris Pratt is tough, funny and likeable, while Bryce Dallas Howard navigates her defrosting ice queen arc as well as expect. Resident kids Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins provide a boring third wheel. The deep supporting cast plays archetypes: Vincent D'Onofrio is a fat, feckless villain, Irrfam Khan a spacy CEO, Omar Sy, Owen's sidekick, Jake Johnson a tech dweeb, Judy Greer the kids' whiny mom. B.D. Wong's in the odd situation of cameoing as a bit player from the original.
If Jurassic World has a demerit, it's that there's no sense of wonder and relatively few frights. But then, we're twenty-two years removed from Jurassic Park; how can any sequel match its reputation? Amping the action to eleven works to its benefit: if World isn't the original, it's different enough to work.
